


Moving On To Go Back

by Activeimagination



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 05:05:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11684685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Activeimagination/pseuds/Activeimagination
Summary: Robert went to Spain for a while. Aaron met a lad, a nice lad. He takes the big step and they walk into the cafe to see Robert has come back. Moving on is good but going back can be an option too.





	Moving On To Go Back

Moving On To Go Back 

 

November. Sunshine and long shadows in the afternoon. Something was strange about it but the residents of the quiet village liked it. Pearl was positively chirpy most mornings and this one was no different.   
‘I say did you see the lad come out of Aaron’s, quite the looker’  
‘No Pearl, I didn’t, could you file those away and ring Joe Lockhart and say I will be a bout ten minutes late’  
‘But you know I really thought there might have been some chance with Robert, I mean I am not one to pry I did notice a few glances before Robert went on that trip to Spain…I mean I did tell him he shouldn’t…’  
‘Pearl Robert and indeed Aaron are grown men, they can do what they like’  
Paddy walked into the surgery and made a mental to check in with Aaron, maybe this time he had moved on and there was indeed no going back. 

 

‘My Gosh Robert you do look refreshed’  
‘Thanks Bernice’, he smiled, ‘I hope your sister will be as happy to see me’  
‘So, did you have a nice time?’  
‘Yes, actually I did, really good to get away, space to think. I really think I have a plan now, I….’  
Bernice looked at him quizzically. She did not have eyes in the back of her head so she did not see that Aaron Dingle had walked in. That alone was enough to stop Robert in his tracks. Aaron had trimmed and had an ever more athletic look about him. That would have stopped Robert in his tracks. What had ensured that he almost dropped the coffee cup was the fact that a stranger was with him and it was obvious that they knew each other, Aaron was not in the habit of allowing a stranger drape his arms around him in the café. 

Aaron saw Robert and called on his acting skills to play cool. Kevin noticed a tensing of the back muscles and was about to ask if something was up when he saw the familiar face, familiar from photographs that he had seen in the Mill and had heard about.  
‘I’ll nip to the loo, grab me an Americano’, he said quietly and studiously looked at the floor as he walked by Robert.  
‘Robert, you’re back’  
‘Yeah’, it was barely audible.  
‘You have a good time?’  
Robert looked at the man he loved. His mind was mush but he knew. One look at Aaron was enough, his mind’s eye raced through images of Aaron and that red headed Adonis that had just passed by and he thought he was going to get sick.  
‘I had a great time thanks’, he might be crushed but he was going to maintain his pride.  
‘I’m glad, look Rob, I… I was going to ask to have a chat…to tell you…I didn’t want you finding out like…’  
‘Aaron, it’s fine, really it is. Look I better get going, I’m meeting Nicola at hers.’

‘Red headed poser strutting around the café as if he flippin owned it….top at least two sizes too small…and tracksuit bottoms flippin painted onto him…ponce…yeah ponce, that’s what he is’  
‘Will you calm down Robert?’  
‘Vic can’t you see, this is ridiculous, he is not Aaron’s type’  
‘Kevin is actually a kind of alright guy’  
‘Who? What? You mean to tell me you knew?’  
She looked at him and cursed herself for speaking too much.  
‘How long?’  
‘Robert, come on’  
‘How long?’  
‘A few weeks, I think they met through the boxing. Kevin trains in the same club. He is a nurse in Hotton Nursing Home. They were sparring partners before you went to Spain and he asked him out round the time you went’  
‘Who?’  
‘Huh?’  
‘Who asked who out? You seem to know a lot so who?’  
‘Kevin asked him’  
‘I see’, he was relieved, for some reason it made it a little more bearable.  
‘Rob, I know you might be jealous’  
‘Jealous, Vic please. I was married to him, I was going to spend the rest of my life with him, I love him with all my heart, jealous’, the tears were flowing.

He could not say anything more. His inner voice was screaming that jealous came nowhere close to describing the feeling of a six inch knife dicing through his heart at the minute. This was it. All was over, for months he had held on to hope, onto the idea that things would be alright, that Aaron would come back, that he could win him back. He had come from Spain with a plan, he was going to go to Aaron and build on the nice chat they had before he had left but now. He had allowed himself imagine a one night thing, his husband, ex-husband, would be well able to pull with no effort. What he saw in the café was more, there was affection there and if Aaron had moved on well then that was that. He deserved to be happy and if this lad was nice well maybe that would help Aaron not to hurt himself. As much as he hated to admit it he, Robert Sugden, was not a source of happiness for Aaron.

‘You alright Aaron?’  
‘I’m fine’, he smiled, a glass smile that told the opposite story.  
‘You aren’t, not really. It’s ok, look I can go, I’m on at six anyway, four nights in a row on the way’  
‘It just wasn’t how I planned on him finding out, that’s all, I’m not having any thoughts about him’  
‘Ok, look I knew what I was getting into when I stayed over with you, I understand where you are coming from but you don’t really owe him anything. The fact that you think you do shows the kind guy you are and lets me know another reason why I want to get to know more about you’

Aaron sat in the living room after Kevin had left. They had been on a few dates over the month and last night was the first time they had slept together. It had been nice, different to what he had with Robert but it had been nice. Kevin was a nice guy and he liked him. He owed it to himself to give things a go. He was intent on doing so but he could not get the look Robert had out of his mind. He had spent months convincing everyone, mostly himself that he was over Robert, if he was then why did he care that he might have hurt him. It was crazy. No, the focus now had to be on Kevin, he was nice, decent and good looking. If last night was anything to go by he was fairly good at other things too, he smiled, yeah his focus was on Kevin now.

oOo

A fortnight passed. Weather had become more seasonable and a frost tinted the grass in the mornings. Robert had kept a low enough profile. He had ran into them a few times and noticed them in the pub once. Chas had made a point of telling him that Aaron had not been as happy in a long, long time. Robert had wanted to say maybe since the day he had married him but did not have the energy to argue. 

Her son did not have a name for it but he knew something was not quite there. However he was doing a remarkable job ignoring it. He could not, however, ignore his ex-husband. Especially when he and Kevin ran into him in Bar West. Now that was a place Aaron was certain Robert would never willingly go.  
‘Gents, small world. I don’t believe we have been introduced’, Robert was trying to be polite. He had seen them come in. Events were conspiring against him.   
‘I’m Kevin, nice to meet you Robert, I’ve heard a bit about you’  
‘Hope you didn’t believe it all’  
‘I don’t think Aaron lies, really’  
‘No, no he doesn’t’  
‘How’s Rebecca doing?’  
Robert looked at Aaron as if that was the most hurtful thing he could have said. Aaron immediately regretted it but he wanted to intervene in what was an uncomfortable conversation.  
‘Good, I think. She is with her aunt down south. With all that happened with Home Farm she didn’t want to stay around so’  
‘And the baby?’  
Robert looked at Aaron. He knew he would not be deliberately seeking to hurt him but he was doing a damn fine job.   
‘All good, few weeks now. I’m going to go down as soon as he is born. I will be as involved as I can be and I think she hopes to be in Leeds from the Spring so we will see’  
‘That’s good, he’ll have a good Dad, I’m sure of it’  
Robert studied Aaron, he knew when he was being sincere and when he was being sarky. This was sincerity, and it was nice but it hurt because standing in front of him was the man who would have made the best step-dad ever.   
‘Can I get you a drink Robert?’  
‘No thanks Kieran’  
‘It’s Kevin’  
‘Of course it is, sorry must be the music, I’ll leave ye to your night’

Aaron nodded as he went over to the other side of the bar. He and Kevin met Kevin’s friends. Aaron did his best to engage, did his best to be the nice lad that Kevin had raved about to his mates. He was doing a fine job and could almost forget that Robert had been there at all. While performing this role he did not notice that Robert had left the bar with a guy. That after all was the reason Robert Sugden was there, he was hurting and one way he always eased hurt before was through random sex. 

oOo

Aaron and Kevin were ambling through the village the following morning when they noticed Vic jumping out of her car in tears.  
‘Vic what’s up?’  
‘Flippin car won’t start and I need to get to…’  
‘Get where, maybe I can’  
‘Look it’s ok Aaron’ she was in hysterics now.  
‘It’s not though, come on let me help maybe I can bring you wherever…’  
‘No Aaron’, this was a scream, ‘I don’t think you want to come with me to Hotton General to see my brother given that he has been beat up’  
‘What?’  
‘He…he…’  
‘Ah I see, look Aaron why don’t we get Vic a cab and you can take a look at the car, maybe it’s something simple like the battery’  
‘Vic, what happened Robert?’  
‘She may not know’  
‘Kevin, she does know, don’t you Vic? Tell me’ there was panic in his voice now and he was not trying to hide it. It was a cold morning but that was not the reason for his blood feeling like iced water.   
‘Aaron, he got beaten by some bloke on the street in town’  
‘We saw him in Bar West, he left though I don’t know what time anyway is he ok?’  
‘Concussion and a fractured rib’  
‘Christ’  
‘Look I have to go, thanks for calling the cab Kevin’  
‘Tell him, tell him…’  
‘I will Aaron’

Aaron and Kevin watched the sports channel in silence.   
‘You can text and see how he is’  
‘Why would I do that?’  
‘Because you care’  
‘Don’t be daft, that’s not what I’m thinking about any road’  
‘Aaron, I like you but please be honest here’  
‘I like you too Kevin’  
‘I know you do but I think you love someone else and he is in a hospital bed at the minute’  
Aaron sprung upright on the chair that Robert had bought and that he had kept.  
‘Bull’  
Kevin looked at him and stroked his face.  
‘Aaron, come on. Look it is actually ok. I knew that this was going to be tough with your past with Robert and all that. But I liked you and wanted to see where it might go.’  
‘Yeah and it is going well, we have a laugh and your mates seemed to like me’  
‘They do, why wouldn’t they? Aaron, you are a good guy. We have had a good time but let’s be fair to both of us. Imagine…imagine if Vic’s news about Robert had been worse’  
‘Don’t say that’, Aaron was raising his voice.  
‘You misunderstand, if worse had happened you wouldn’t forgive yourself because you still have deep feelings for Robert and I think you need to explore them.’  
‘I…I’m sorry Kevin’  
‘You do not need to be, you did nothing wrong. We can walk away from this with nobody getting overly hurt, we both deserve to be happy and for what it’s worth, you can be’  
‘Alone?’  
‘Maybe but sometimes people are happier with somebody. Look maybe I’m a romantic but I think when you find something special, you know. And your something special is in a hospital bed right now. Look, I know stuff happened and you guys might have a bit to go but my advice is to give it a shot’  
‘Why are you being like this?’  
‘Because I am a bloody nice guy’  
‘Yeah, look I don’t know where I’m at but I would like to be mates with you if, you know…’  
‘Hey, mate we are that already’

Robert was being kept one further night for observation. His head was pounding still and he was shaken. He was not on a monitor but if he was it would have shown his BP rising when the door opened.  
‘What are you doing here?’  
‘To see how you are’  
‘Why?’  
‘Because I care about Aaron and he cares about you’  
‘Look Kevin, thanks, I reckon Vic is right, you are a sound bloke but I’m fine and you should get back to Aaron, tell him I’m fine’  
‘Only you are not, nor could you be. I know what it is like to leave a bar with a bloke and end up being beaten up by the skumbag.’  
‘How do you know?’  
‘We were there meeting mates of mine, one of them is a copper and he can read people, he thought the lad you left with was a bad one. He only told me today mind or I would have done something.’  
‘He just jumped me, wallet gone’, he was crying, ‘I deserved nothing more’  
‘Look you can throw a pity party or do what I did’  
‘Go on’  
‘Well I decided to be more careful and took up boxing, anyway that’s not why I’m here. There’s a guy back in Emmerdale, worried sick about you.’  
‘Aaron?’  
‘Yeah, look he loves you’  
‘Yeah right’  
‘He does. I may be a part time boxer but my eyes work. And you love him, I knew that from the minute I saw you and your performance last night was just confirmation’  
‘Sorry about that, I didn’t mishear the name’  
‘Again, my brain works, look Aaron and I have called our seeing each other a day. He is a good guy and I think you are not a bad egg either. I came here to let you know that you could text him, reach out’  
‘He could’  
‘Yeah, and he might but you know him better than that. Also be sure to report that skumbag, I didn’t when it happened me and I always wonder if he did something similar to someone else’  
‘ Why are you being so nice to me?’  
‘You know you two really need to meet more people, I’m not the only decent guy out there’

 

oOo

Aaron waited for hours, typing and re-typing a text. He knew Kevin was right, he knew he wanted to try but didn’t know if he could. Beep. His phone vibrated with a message from Robert. 

‘Aaron, being kept in another night. Feeling better but wouldn’t mind seeing a friendly face, if you are free could you come visit, R. 

Robert had mulled over it for a half hour and had finally decided that throwing caution to the wind was best, maybe concussion did that to people. 

Aaron looked at the message and took half a minute to write his response. 

‘On my way, we have lots to chat about, I’ll bring grapes!’

Aaron walked to his car and turned the key in the ignition. Moving on up was playing on the radio. Yeah he had moved on but now, now he was ready to go back.


End file.
